Tag Archives: Jo Sullivan

I got a nice 4-star review on Amazon.com and Goodreads. Judith compares the book to Willard Motley’s Knock On Any Door. Pretty cool!

Jo Sullivan helps a homeless boy, Chris, look for his missing girlfriend, carrying us deep into the Chicago’s underbelly where street kids struggle to survive. Their quest carries them deep into the macabre, where the homeless are fed into the sick ambitions of the rich. The stories of neglect and abuse that people her world are as real as the mystery of Lexie’s disappearance, and in the end, Borys creates not only a page turning mystery, but an authentic and moving picture of a bitter, harsh and cruel world, reminiscent, for me, of Willard Motley’s 1947 Chicago epic, Knock On Any Door, a story that moved me greatly back in the Fifties.

What do you see when you think of teens living on the streets of a city? Do you get angry, compassionate, or think it’s a shame, but not your problem? Be ready to see these teens in a different way.

In this novel, Borys introduces readers to Jo Sullivan, a reporter who started out just looking for a story, but who finds so much more. Most especially, she finds Chris Young, a young graffiti artist living on the streets, surviving however he can. Together they look for the truth, not only about a funeral home, but also about themselves.

“Midnight interviews at funeral parlors – not exactly the way they mapped thing out in Journalism 405: Strategic Communication Research. But then nothing about Jo’s situation now related to what life had been back then.”

Jo comes to care about Chris, as do readers, with Borys painting a picture of life on the streets of Chicago that will absorb and involve readers as the reality shocks and captures them.

Kim over at Wistfulskimmie’s Book Reviews gave Painted Black a 5 star review today. I’m so excited because she had such nice things to say. It is so gratifying to have reviewers applaud the very elements I tried so hard to do right.

Thank, you, Kim. I will certainly let you know when the second Street Stories novel is ready to read.

This is the story of Jo Sullivan. She is a reporter, writing short stories about the forgotten homeless of Chicago. This is a mystery and Jo must get to the bottom of a missing teenage prostitute, a dodgy funeral service that specializes in freeze drying corpses for those that can afford it, and a possible link between the two. With a Youth Worker and one of the prostitutes closest friends for help, she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery whilst fighting her own demons at the same time.

I enjoyed this immensely, but it was also quite gritty at the same time and made me think of the fates of others, especially the ‘forgotten’ homeless. Whilst on the one hand highlighting the fate these teenagers have to face, it was also a good mystery at its heart. Jo and Chris are damaged in their own ways and must put aside their mistrust of each other to work together. It is a gripping story. A real page turner but also very sad. The characters were true to life and leapt out of the page at me, at times their pain was tangible. The ending was sad but right for the book. A great mystery that highlights the problems facing the homeless more or less every day. I shall certainly look out for more by this author.

When I emailed an epub version of Painted Black to Jenn’s Review Blog on May 8, I did so hoping she’d be able to get to it by the end of June. Reviewers are swamped these days with review requests and Jenn had only been able to tell me she would get to it as soon as she could.

So I was very surprised to get her email May 31 saying she was already done and had posted the review on her blog. According to her email: “Once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down! Review is posted on my blog and I am posting to Amazon, B&N and Goodreads also 🙂 I hope you will consider asking me to review your next book, I loved the character of Jo Sullivan! Thanks again for the opportunity.”

Like this:

Norelle Done posted her recent review of Painted Black at her Seattle Wrote blog site. She gave the book four out of five stars, which is a win by anyone’s calculations. Here’s how she tallied up the score.

Amidst frozen corpses, a funeral home scandal, and each character dealing with their own ghosts and closet skeletons, this novel comes down to a key point – the people that live on the streets are mostly forgotten when they disappear.

Plot: Painted Black is easy to follow, interesting, and gets you hooked – I was drawn into Lexie’s plight and found Jo’s investigation easy to keep up with. The story flowed well and fit together like a puzzle, and it didn’t feel too coincidental either. Star Awarded.

Characters: I felt like Deb went 75 percent of the way with the characters. There was back story, but it wasn’t resolved or fully explained, such as what really happened with Jo’s dad, or Chris’ family, or more into why Jack is involved with the homeless. Maybe there will be more in future Jo Sullivan books, but I was slightly left hanging with this one. Half-Star Awarded.

Setting: The setting for Painted Black is supposed to be Chicago, but I found myself feeling like it was Seattle more than once. Granted, I have never been to Chicago, and all of the Seattle-based books I read probably tainted things a little bit, but I feel like more could have been done to make it feel like Chicago. However, the book did have the trait of feeling like it could be any city, and with the focus on the homeless, it could help the reader to adopt the story for their own city. Half-Star Awarded.

Originality: It’s definitely a unique story. From the characters to Deb’s intimate understanding of what the homeless face, Painted Black is a one-of-a-kind story. Star Awarded.

Style: I noticed one or two errors, but none were glaring or distracting. Star Awarded.

That’s a total of Four Stars. Borys depicts the street life and struggles in an engaging, interesting way that draws you in and helps give a little perspective into the lives of the homeless. Maybe the next time you see someone huddled in a door frame or sleeping on a park bench, they won’t be quite so invisible.

What the Hell?

Chicago, freeze-dried bodies, kids sleeping on the streets. That's what this blog is about. What's what my novel is about. Dark urban graffiti, hard rock music and doing what you gotta do to survive. Small glimpses of the novel mix with snapshots from real life. You tell me which posts are real and which are fiction. If you can.